


Very Special NCIS Liaison Sally Malik

by HyperMint



Series: Summer Contacts [8]
Category: Being Human (US/Canada), Harry Potter - Fandom, NCIS
Genre: Abby Being Ridiculous, Characters of color, Creative License, Friendship, Gen, Most Likely Inaccurate, Suspension Of Disbelief
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-07-22
Updated: 2014-08-05
Packaged: 2018-02-10 00:18:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 8
Words: 9,415
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2003577
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HyperMint/pseuds/HyperMint
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sally visits the NCIS office and finds something of a mystery.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Welcome, Sally!

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Sixth Year](https://archiveofourown.org/works/616895) by [HyperMint](https://archiveofourown.org/users/HyperMint/pseuds/HyperMint). 



> AN: Hey all! This is a deleted scene, of sorts, to the beginning part of Sixth Year. This takes place in DC during chapter six and before chapter seven of said story. 
> 
> Enjoy!
> 
>  
> 
> DISCLAIMER: I do not own above books, shows or movies. I am just hanging out with the characters in my head-canon.

Tony sighed slightly as he travelled to his desk.

His team was working on cold cases this week and he would normally not mind it, being happy for the break, but he’d been going over cases that other East Coast Senior Field Agents have been filtering down the line.

From what he understood, no one had any idea where they were all coming from.

“You look tired,” McGee noted as Tony slumped behind his desk.

“You would, too, if you had to go over files that three other offices have given you,” he sighed, leaning down to haul half a box’s worth of files out of his backpack. 

He didn’t honestly mind having to do this type of thing – because all the NCIS offices had to keep a good relationship with each other - , but it was too much trying to do his and someone else’s files.  But Vance was adamant and had taken Tony off rotation until him and some of the other SFAs got the overflow under control.

“It’s only going to get worse, too,” he complained to his present teammates. “Rowland over in Charleston is sending _his_ overflow and we’re still dealing with New Jersey. Why they have so many files is beyond me.”

“Poor management?” McGee shrugged.

“Do they not have their own Special Field Agent?” Ziva frowned between them.

“I think they do,” Tony scowled, picking up his desk phone. His teammates watched as he dialed a number.  “Hey, Steve,” he grinned as the other end picked up. “It’s Tony. No, I haven’t shot anyone yet. Or need bail, no. What’s the deal with Jersey? Uh- huh. The overflow, yeah. Right. Hm… What do you mean it’s not Jersey? Where the hell is it coming from, then?”

McGee and Ziva looked at each other, eyebrows raised.

Tony sighed deeply. “Yeah. Okay. No promises. Alright. Thanks. I’ll call around. I know, right? Take care.”

“Well?” McGee prompted. “What’s the verdict?”

“No one on his end knows anything. This all apparently started in Jersey, but no one will say where or why.”

“We can help,” he offered, ready to boot up his computer.

“Maybe when you make Senior Field Agent,” Tony waved him off. “We got a system.”

“Why?” Ziva frowned. “We work together, yes? Let us help.”

“No, Ziva,” McGee lifted a finger. “I’ve heard about this. Actually, I have a monthly Skype meeting with three other tech agents on their own MCRTs. But those guys aren’t based on the East Coast. I get it, Tony. But I can ask one of them if they know anything.”

The Italian shrugged. “Why not? I think I’ll call to see if anyone else has anything to do with this.”

“Do the West Coast SFAs have their own ‘system’?” Ziva leaned back in her chair.

“If they don’t, they should,” Tony smirked. “It really works.”

Almost half an hour later, they found that the West Coast agents hadn’t heard, but Tony was welcome to send files to them.

“ _So, **that’s** where all our files went_!” one of them joked into Tony’s ear. _“Sure. We’ll be glad to take them off your hands. Personally, some of us need it. Heard about Portland, Oregon? Not something that needs repeated. Get the ball rolling and send us some of that overflow. Always happy to help a brother in Navy white and blue.”_

Tony agreed and promised to keep him in the loop concerning where this overflow actually originated from.

“I have heard that phrase before,” Ziva leaned against his desk. “A sibling in Navy white and blue?”

“Yeah,” McGee nodded. “Heard of the LEO saying about ‘brothers in blue’? It’s something that someone started about Navy cops.”

“We investigate Navy crimes,” Tony added. “We’re also cops, but we don’t really wear blue.”

“Well,” the Israeli slinked back to her desk. “We need to finish these files soon, so we can go do our real jobs.” She never liked sitting for long. “You, especially, Tony. We cannot go down a person out, yes?”

McGee furrowed his brow at her. “I think it’s the other way around.”

“Actually,” Tony frowned at him. “I think I like that saying better.”

“Yeah, but contextually speaking – ”

“Context, Conshmext,” he waved a hand. “What about it, Gemcity?”

Ziva stared at them, trying to figure out what they were going on about now.

McGee’s mouth opened and closed for a few minutes, but eventually conceded.

“Besides,” Tony went on. “It makes us sound cooler than we really are. Like a squad on the front lines.”

“’ _Forrest_ _Gump’_?” McGee perked up.

“I was thinking ‘ _Glory’_ , but not bad,” Tony toasted him with his water bottle before taking a sip.

“I do not understand,” Ziva sighed.

“I do. I think it’s sweet.”

Tony choked as the hauntingly familiar voice came from behind him. Slowly turning, he stared as he found Sally Malik standing behind him. She wiggled her fingers at him.

“I got in the wards,” she grinned. “Director Vance is _awesome_.”

**


	2. Abby and Palmer

Sally may have been new to the idea of a magical world, but that didn’t mean she was totally in the dark.

Director Vance had seemed amused when he allowed her in and Sally couldn’t help wondering at who the amusement was directed at, though she had a feeling that there was no love lost between him and Tony.

Speaking of Tony, he paced as much as he could in front of her in the stopped elevator. She watched, nervously twining her hair around her fingers as she stood in the corner.

“Is it really such a bad thing to let me be here?” she ventured.

The question seemed to jolt him out of whatever spiral his thoughts were taking him on. “No,” he blinked, as if realizing that himself.

“Don’t like being taken by surprise, huh?” she understood that. Especially since she’d practically tossed him out of the kitchen that one time.

“No, yes,” he sighed, roughly dragging a hand through his hair. He glanced over at her and saw something that must have been on her face, because his softened considerably. “Not that I’m not happy to see you,” he smiled warmly. “I haven’t been able to sleep much because of the flood of files and I’m not always happy with surprises when I’m sleep deprived. You can ask Palmer about that and I’m sure he’ll tell you all about it.”

Sally nodded uncertainly and shrugged. “It’s a nice place,” she offered. “Nice and big and airy.”

“It’s a home away from home,” he lifted a shoulder. They looked at each other for a few minutes before Tony snapped out of it and clapped his hands together. “Right. I should probably introduce you to some people before I get back to work.”

“It would be nice if I knew other people,” she agreed, not wanting to keep him from his work. From what she’d gathered, NCIS Agents were like cops for the sole purpose of serving the Navy, SEALs and Marines. It was just as important as Josh and Aidan being medical personnel, both hard at work when she left to visit Tony out of boredom.

Tony got the elevator working again and the doors soon opened out into the morgue. “Palmer’s like me, too,” he said quietly. “If you ever need anything and I’m not available, just come down here, okay?”

She nodded as she trailed after him through the doors.

As far as morgues went, she supposed it was a high class kind of establishment. Everything neatly in place, everything shining with polished gleam and clean enough to satisfy Josh’s OCD tendencies.

There was a young man sitting on one of the tables, though, the only thing out of place. He was kind of cute, with a bowl-shaped haircut that worked well with his brown hair and chocolate eyes. A red bandana was wrapped around his forehead and he seemed content to stay where he was for hours at a time.

Tony zeroed in on him and grinned. “Jay! Back again, are you?”

The young man immediately turned and grinned right back. “Did you miss me?”

“Didn’t have time to miss you,” he hopped up on the table across from him, Sally taking it all in with fascination. “Where’s your brother?”

“Le’s (Lay-on) in Spain right now, as they seem to be having issues with some of the wizards over there,” Sally smiled shyly as his brown eyes met hers. “And you’ve brought a friend to work with you?”

“Oh, Sally, this is Jay,” Tony introduced. “He’s one of our Special Liaisons between us at NCIS and the offices at the MNP. That’s the magical version of this office. They sometimes give messages to those of us who are working with the Muggles in order to not cause suspicion or anything.”

“No messages today,” Jay chirped. “Just hanging out with Palmer. Ducky’s gonna be awhile, though.”

“Jay?” a voice called out from down a hall. “Who are you talking to – Oh, Tony,” a curly haired man wearing glasses came around a corner. “Agent Gibbs need anything from me?”

“Nah. Actually, Palmer, I’d like you to meet a friend of mine,” the Italian waved at Sally. “Sally, Palmer. Palmer, Sally.”

“Hi,” she smiled brightly.

“Nice to meet you,” he grinned back. He rocked back on his heels as he looked between the three of them. “So, are you another Liaison?”

“Nope,” Tony shook his head. Sally wasn’t too sure what a Liaison was besides being something of a messenger when needed. “She’s just here to visit.”

“I can show you around if you like,” Jay offered.

“Thanks, but I think I’ll explore for a little bit on my own,” she told him. “I needed to do something to get out of the house and running amok in a new place seems like just the ticket.”

“You’ll run into some other witches and wizards,” Palmer mused. “Some don’t really like visiting spirits any more than necessary, but the others do. They’ll talk your ear off.”

“I’ll stick with Tony,” she told them. “Find my bearings before going off on an expedition.”

“Speaking of expeditions,” Tony leaned back on his hands. “There’s a kid down in the file room and she’s been down there almost as long as any one of us can remember.”

“That’s a great idea!” Palmer nodded approvingly. “See if you can get her to talk to you. No one else has and we’ve kind of started calling her ‘Salem’, because she won’t talk to us.”

“I’ve tried,” Jay nodded along. “We’ve tried to have a female spirit talk to her, but you might be able to. She isn’t any trouble, but we’d like to at least know why she’s still here and not moved on yet.”

Sally nodded thoughtfully. It sounded… not too terrible a task. Not like she had anywhere to be right now, anyway.

Before she could say anything, they heard clomping swiftly coming toward them.

“Palmer! Palmer! It’s happened again!” Sally blinked as a taller woman teetered to a stop in front of them on high platform shoes. “The thief – Tony!”

“Abby!” he made a small ‘oomph’ noise as she tackled him almost onto the floor. “I was going to surprise you with some of your drug of choice, but you’ve gone and spoiled it for me.”

This ‘Abby’ gasped, swinging herself – and her ponytails – around until she spied a big red cup that Sally could have _sworn_ wasn’t there a minute ago.

“That’s the perks of having magic,” Jay sagely commented, hopping down from the table to stand next to her as they watched the others.

“So,” Abby took a large slurp from her drink. “What’re you two plotting down here all by your lonesomes?”

“Lunch,” Tony shrugged, hiding a smile at Sally’s mouthed ‘lonesomes’ to herself. “Maybe tomorrow at that deli down the street.”

“Oh, yes! I shall come with you! They make delish and to die for milkshakes, don’t they?” she beamed. She sucked on the straw as she looked between the pair.

“You were saying something about a thief?” Tony prompted.

“Oh, right. Well, you know how little things’ve been disappearing without a trace? I’ve been trying to track the pattern, but there _is_ no pattern. About an hour ago, something else disappeared, but I’m trying to make sure our magpie took it before jumping to conclusions. Someone could have put it somewhere and forgot about it.”

“Yeah,” Tony deadpanned, “like two days ago.”

Abby, Palmer and Jay winced.

“Why?” Sally looked around at them. “What happened two days ago?”

“Just count your lucky stars that you weren’t here,” Jay muttered.

“A minor hiccup,” Abby waved it off, bouncing back. “At any rate, the owner’s pretty sure it used to be on the corner of his desk and all swore they hadn’t passed it in the time it went missing.”

“And what did you want Palmer for?”

“Well, since things are slow, I thought Palmer would like some excitement. Looks like things are slow for you, too, if I walked in on two of the finest guys in the building holding a two man conversation about lunch.”

Sally blinked, suddenly realizing something. “She can’t see us,” she raised a finger. “She can’t see _you_ ,” she pointed at Jay, who shrugged. “You’re a ghost like me?”

“I thought you knew that.”

“No, I didn’t,” she felt a smile grow on her face. “Looks like I’m in for a trip, for sure.”

“Well,” Tony clapped, eyes flickering over the invisible pair to include them. “I’ll just leave you two to your little tête-a-tête and head back upstairs.”

“Right-o, Ton-o!” she gave him a salute before hooking an arm through Palmer’s and dragging him off and out of the morgue, chattering all the way.

Sally watched them. “She’s… nice. I guess.”

“That’s Abby,” Jay grinned. “Always running.”

“You two want to go with them?” Tony asked.

Jay thought for a minute before shaking his head. “I’ll come back. I need to check in to Jersey.” He disappeared and left Sally with Tony.

“I guess I’ll get going, then,” she shrugged. “You know. A giant naval complex to explore, a kid to talk to… Another day at the office.”

“Just drop in to say hi once in a while,” he told her. “And let me know before you decide to take off back to Boston. The last thing I need is for Aidan and Josh to call me up to look for you, only for me to tell them that I hadn’t seen you within the last twenty-four hours.”

“Right-o, Ton-o,” she echoed with a sassy salute and a teasing smile. “See you on the flip side.”

** *


	3. Exploring

Sally spent the better part of two hours wandering the building.

She met some of the other Magical personnel assigned to NCIS and had a fun chat with a young wizard who had never actually spent time with a spirit with Sally’s good humor.  All of them asked her to look in on ‘Salem’ and she made sure to put that on her list.

Jay kept coming and going, but that didn’t stop him from introducing her to some of the other visiting spirits.

Sally made quick friends with Maya, a Spaniard with a wicked sense of humor, Clover, who didn’t like her first name, Mark, who – if Sally didn’t know better – had a crush on Clover, and a quiet older spirit that seemed to get into his head that the office needed a guardian and watched over the floor. Sally didn’t quite follow Clover when she said that ‘Sentinel’ liked her already, but she went with it.

Maya was attached to one of the file clerks – as her girlfriend’s cousin -, but was usually found back home in Spain. Clover was the daughter of an agent’s victim from a long time ago and she tried to help him find some peace because even Sally could see he was still beating himself up over it. Mark was the childhood friend of someone from another part of the building and usually visited once a month on Wednesdays, except when his friend was in the building or, as Sally suspected, when Clover was there.

Sentinel…

Maya told her that he didn’t visit that often, but no one knew his story and Salem seemed to be the oldest spirit there.

“So, you’ll be heading down to see Salem?” Maya wanted to know.

“Not quite yet,” Sally shrugged, catching Tony’s team entering the elevator in the corner of her eye. They all seemed ready to go, but Tony was still at his desk, swimming in paperwork. She left the others and glided to a stop in front of Tony’s desk. “Got left behind, huh?”

“You could say that,” he muttered. Glancing up, he gestured her over with a slight tilt of the head and dropped his eyes back down. Once she got closer, he continued, “A robbery was called in and they don’t quite need four people. Another team is en route to help them. Me? I get stuck with the research, being here anyway.”

“That sucks,” she commiserated. Sally sighed and looked around. “What’s the deal with Sentinel?”

“Oh, him? Well,” Tony focused on his screen instead of at her, as if reading something to himself. “I can’t tell you, either. Met him my first week and almost scared the hell out of Palmer his first day. That’s actually one of the ways I knew he was a wizard, you know. Don’t worry about Sentinel. He’s a good guy and looks out for us. Both kinds.”

Sally could get behind that. She wandered away and met up with some other spirits – some passing through – before heading down to see Palmer.

“How’s your afternoon been so far?” he adjusted his glasses as he cleaned up from his lunch.

“Not so bad,” she shrugged. “Any progress on your magpie?” she remembered Abby from this morning.

“No, but then Abby has a whiteboard that she’s looking at,” he shrugged. “You can go look and tell me what you think.”

That sounded good, so she found herself in Abby’s Lab a minute later.

“Nice place,” she looked around at the whirring machines and the screensaver on the different computer monitors. She found Abby staring darkly at a whiteboard while twisting a ponytail around a finger.

“Two weeks,” Abby muttered, tapping her bottom lip. “Thirteen missing things from all over the building…” she whirled around and picked up a clipboard.

Sally looked at the displayed pictures of different people. She assumed they worked at the Navy Yard and grinned when Abby stepped back in front of the board with the clipboard in hand. Looking over the Goth’s shoulder, Sally could see a list made of departments, dates, times, names and objects.

Abby apparently thought better aloud, so Sally nodded along as she thought about it. Everything was relatively small – except one or two random things – and the owners could have sworn they had locked them up under lock and key.

“Sounds like magic to me,” Sally commented, coming back to stand beside Abby, crossing her arms and turning to look at the board. She narrowed her eyes as she thought about it.

That’s how Tony found them almost a half hour later, positions mirrored as they both lipped at a lock of hair almost unconsciously.

“How’s it going?” Tony had to ask.

“It’s something that sounds like a magical perp,” Sally commented.

“It’s hopeless!” Abby complained. “Maybe they really are putting them someplace else and forgetting about them. Half look like they’re absentminded, anyway.”

“Any other suspects besides the cleaning crew?” Tony raised a brow.

“Work in progress,” Abby lifted a shoulder.

“The cleaning crew?” Sally scoffed. “Seriously? These people take the things home almost every night. How could the cleaning crew know when to steal them?”

“But how would the cleaning crew know when to nab them?” Abby muttered to herself, whirling around again.

Sally tossed her hands up, rolling her eyes at Tony’s grin. “Seriously, is she always like this?”

‘Like you wouldn’t believe,’ he mouthed, smoothing his expression when the Goth turned back around.

Sally was actually kind of impressed at the blankness that suddenly took over the Italian’s expression. “You’re an undercover cop, er, agent, right?” Sally suddenly grinned as an idea came to her. “How well can you keep your cool when faced with a distraction?” she purred, coming up to him.

Tony kept his attention on Abby, but used her frenetic movements to glance at Sally with something like amusement. ‘Challenge accepted,’ he winked with a roguish smirk. He turned back to Abby just in time to answer a question while Sally thought about it.

Remembering her Salem duties, she regretfully told him to hold that thought to come back to later. She made a stop to update Palmer before heading down to the file room.

She’d never spent much time in file rooms – though there was this nice nurse from Boston General who Sally wondered was psychic as she would call out a hello as she entered whenever Sally chose to visit - , but this one was relatively organized with a staff of file clerks who seemed to be close with each other.

She kept out of the way to get her bearings and wandered on the sidelines, trying to figure out what Salem looked like. She was down there for an hour, but no luck.

Deciding to head back upstairs, she went for another walk around the place and turned a corner –

** *

“Yes,” Tony rubbed his eyes. “Yes, I understand that, but all these files are coming from somewhere and I have no idea where.”

He was vaguely aware of Ziva and McGee keeping an eye on him as he nodded tiredly.

“Right. Right. Yes. I’ll be sure to – yes, I’ll still be here. Thank you.”

He hung up with a sigh and rubbed his face.

“I think we can trace the files,” McGee offered.

“Thanks, but that was someone who may actually have a chance,” Tony stretched. He had just talked with a fellow MNP liaison who needed Tony’s input on a robbery case. Unfortunately, that meant actually going to Alaska and Tony didn’t need the extra stress. His fellow MNP Agent would have a better chance of asking around the MNP side to see if it was something magical. At this point, Tony wasn’t ruling anything out, especially since the only other explanation _was_ magic.

“Oh. Alright.”

“But, should he call back with nothing to add…”

McGee looked a bit brighter at the prospect of helping as he went back to his own work.

Ziva watched Tony for another moment before going on with her own work.

Tony sighed as he gathered a handful of files and headed for the file room.

Once there, he hung around the front desk, but found no one in the area. He sighed again and looked around to be sure before slipping past the desk and into the file room itself.

“Hello?” he glanced around, but saw no one there either. ‘Did everyone go out to lunch?’ This was unusual, unless they were all out in the office, scattered to the four winds as they collected and distributed files to others.

Turning a corner, he spied a flash of familiar skirt and frowned.

‘There’s Salem,’ he smiled slightly as the young girl glanced shyly at him before disappearing to wherever she went when she didn’t want to be found. ‘So, if there’s Salem, then where’s Sal- ’

“Tony! Oh my gosh, you won’t believe what I just saw!” said African descendant materialized from out of nowhere. “I was looking down here for your girl, but she wasn’t here. I was thinking of going upstairs and then I turned a corner and I saw a whole blue mist that – are you alright?”

The Italian was covering his eyes as he crouched on the floor, leaning against a file shelf. He could have sworn his heart had stopped as soon as she appeared like that. Lamenting the fact that she hadn’t been wearing a bell when she died, he smiled weakly up at her. “Just fine. Light-headed. Go on about your blue mist.”

She gave him an unconvinced look before shrugging it off. “The blue mist was all over one row of files. I wasn’t sure if it was Salem or not, so I poked around some more, but nothing turned up.”

“Well, I don’t know what you saw,” he shrugged. “And you just missed Salem, I’m afraid. Where is everyone?”

“I don’t know. They took off about the time the mist appeared.”

** *


	4. More Exploring

The rest of the day was spent tracking down leads on the ‘File-ocalypse’ and trying to figure out Sally’s ‘mist’ thing that was apparently haunting the file room.

Sally was currently haunting Abby as she scowled at her whiteboard.

“This doesn’t make the slightest bit of sense,” Sally drawled before tipping her head back and groaning at the ceiling. She could try cracking Tony’s façade, but it was not going to be today. She was more interested in what that mist was, but Palmer had told her that maybe it was just passing through. They had stuff like that.

Abby echoed the statement while pulling on her pigtails and she stormed off. Sally watched her go before heading down to visit Palmer, who was speaking with a spirit of a recently discovered cold case victim.

“Oh, hi, Sally,” he smiled at her. “This is Anya. She was telling me about a trip to France she took in the sixties.”

“Hi,” Sally waved. The other girl nodded before telling Palmer she would come back in a bit and left.

“Did you find anything on your mist?”

“No. I couldn’t lasso Salem, either. I know that you guys want me to find out her deal, but it’s hard when she doesn’t come out.”

Palmer lifted a shoulder. “Give her time. Anyway, it’s almost time to go home. Are you staying or heading back to Boston?”

She twisted her lips as she thought about it. She might go back to visit Josh and Aidan to make sure they were keeping out of trouble, but maybe she could hang around DC to play tourist.

Before she could answer, Palmer received a text message and he had to laugh at it.

“What is it?”

“It’s Abby,” Palmer shook his head. “You know what? It’s easier to show you than tell you.”

Sally was curious and gamely followed him into the elevator and out again when they reached Tony’s floor. She looked around, not seeing anything of interest, but followed the assistant ME as he reached Tony’s corner.

The Italian was staring fixedly at his screen as Ziva and McGee stifled laughter from their desks.

“Hey, Tony,” Sally materialized next to him. “What’s going on?”

He casually grabbed a post it note and scribbled something before deliberately meeting her eyes and tapping the note. She looked over his shoulder and saw what he wrote.

_‘Look at the floor in front of my desk.’_

He nodded and she slowly looked over his computer monitor and saw the strangest thing.

Abby was dressed all in camouflage as she sat on a picnic blanket, also in camo, with a cup of Caf-Pow! at her side and binoculars held up to her eyes that were trained on Tony.

“What’s she doing?” Sally glanced back at Tony to see him pecking at his keyboard.

_‘Don’t know. She’s been doing this for the past few weeks now, and not even Gibbs can get an answer out of her. She’s always doing this to me for some reason.’_

“She’s not being very conspicuous about it,” she observed.

_‘Probably doesn’t want to be mistaken for someone else and shot.’_

“Maybe.”

_‘There’s no rhyme or reason to this, either. Don’t know when she’s going to do this next.’_

Sally raised her eyebrows and glanced at Palmer, who didn’t bother hiding his laughter.

“Abby, are you sure everything’s alright?”

The Goth, instead of answering, drew a small walkie-talkie from inside her jacket. “Palmer,” she spoke into it. “Are you here, yet? I need to go to the little Goth’s room and I don’t want to leave him unwatched for a second.”

Sally had to smile as Palmer took out an identical walkie and spoke into it in response, “Hey, Abby. I’m here.”

Abby simply held out a second pair of binoculars and slowly moved to stand. Once he took it, everyone watched as she slowly made her way to the bathroom – walking right through Myra, who was laughing at the whole thing – without taking her binoculars from Tony. She almost walked into a pile of files that one of the interns was trying to carry and it was only the intern’s quick footwork that saved the files from tumbling.

“Oh, it’s hilarious!” Myra giggled, materializing next to Sally as Palmer took Abby’s spot and trained the binoculars on Tony.

“What is she looking for, exactly?” McGee had to ask.

“Like I know,” Tony rolled his eyes. “Ziva?”

“I am uncertain,” she frowned. “What does she think you are doing?”

“Has she been doing this a lot?” Sally asked Myra.

“Not a lot, that I’ve seen, but whatever she’s looking for, I hope she keeps looking,” she laughed again.

Sally looked up to see Sentinel shaking his head. It could just be her, but she thought he looked amused.

* ** *


	5. Another Sighting

Eventually, the day ended and Sally still couldn’t catch a glimpse of Salem.

‘It’s like she knows I’m looking for her,’ she scowled, skulking in a corner of the morgue. Palmer was cleaning up for the night and left her to her stewing. ‘Maybe she thinks I’m playing a game.’

Tony wandered in a few minutes later.

“Alright,” he told her. “I’m going to leave in a few hours. Decided on what you were going to do, yet?”

“I think I’ll just stay here for the night,” she decided. “To find Salem and that blue mist.”

“I don’t think I’ve ever heard of such a thing,” Palmer leaned on his mop.

“It might be something else,” Tony shrugged. “Who knows.”

“I’ll let you know if I find anything,” she promised.

“I still have the paperwork to find the origins of,” he sighed. “I think I’ll head over to the MNP.”

Sally left to see what Abby was up to. She was staying late because of a few teams that needed her results ASAP.

The Goth was typing on one of her computers, muttering to herself.

Sally watched for about fifteen minutes and wavered about snooping over her shoulder before deciding to try her luck back in the file room.

Salem was still not coming out.

“Okay, Salem, look,” Sally looked at the dark file room. “I just want to talk to you about yourself. I can tell you some about me, if you’re curious?”

She didn’t know what she was looking for, but she didn’t find it.

“Please give me a sign that you’re here?”

Maybe she had a place to go when she wasn’t in here.

Sally sighed. “I’m coming back,” she announced. She went Elsewhere for a few hours to figure out how to get the kid talking. None of the other spirits hanging about NCIS were any help. She wouldn’t talk to them, either.

Sally came back in the main office.

It was a little after two in the morning, everyone having left for the night. The cleaning crew was just beginning to empty trash cans and sweep floors, so she decided to investigate into Abby’s magpie case concerning the cleaners.

As far as she could tell, though, not a one of them was interested in locked drawers or things left out on the desk tops.

“There goes that theory,” she huffed as the cleaning petered out around an hour later. She returned to the file room, where she had first seen that blue mist.

There was nothing there, everyone and thing gone for the few hours left until sunrise.

“Well, I don’t know what to tell you,” Sally tossed her hands up. “Salem, I’m back,” she looked around. “Are you here?”

Sally waited.

And waited.

And waited.

“Okay. I’m going upstairs,” she announced to the room.

Palmer’s boss, Dr. Mallard, was just getting in as she peeked into the morgue.

In the main office, Tony wasn’t there just yet, but his boss had dumped his stuff at his desk.

“Hey, Sally,” Clover waved. “I think Tony’s just pulling into the parking lot if you want to go out there and see him.”

“Okay, thanks.”

She went downstairs first to find out what Abby was up to this morning –

** * **

Tony stretched and yawned as he got out of the car.

A good night’s rest was never a bad thing to have, no matter what a certain person of his acquaintance thought.

He ducked back to get his coffee and made sure his stuff was out before locking the car. Stuffing his keys deep in his pocket, he took a fortifying sip of sinfully delicious coffee –

“ _TONY_! Oh my _Gosh,_ get to the Lab. Get to the lab _now_!” Sally demanded, having come straight from there. “It was there, just now! It was all over the – what happened to you?”

His coffee was floating in front of him as he trembled against his car, a hand covering his eyes as breathed deeply on the pavement.  “Nothing,” he exhaled, letting his hand fall into his lap. He had no idea how much more he could take of this. His head fell back and he smiled tightly. “You just startled me.”

“Oh. Sorry.”

“No, go on,” he waved her off. “Why am I needed in the lab?”

“That blue mist,” she told him. “It was all over the floor.”

“Alright,” he hauled himself up.  “I’ll go see to your mist.”

She hurried him through check-in and into the elevator, before disappearing.

Tony heaved a sigh before pushing the button for Abby’s lab.

When he got there, he was immediately drawn to the presence of his team’s voices.

“Maybe it was Tony,” he entered to see McGee shrug.

“It couldn’t be Tony,” Abby flapped her hand at him. “I left an hour before he did. Didn’t step foot outside his door since he went in.”

“And how, exactly, do you know this for fact?” Ziva crossed her arms as Sally appeared in their midst.

“So you _were_ out there all night,” Tony frowned at the Goth. She had taken her ‘Tony watching’ to the fire escape landing on his floor. He had gotten in after she’d left the office last night and found a pair of binoculars watching him from the window. The mini camo hat had matched Abby’s, which was the thing that gave her away. Tony still didn’t know what he did to warrant such scrutiny.

“Of course, I was,” Abby told him. “I don’t give up easily, after all.”

“What were you guys talking about?”

“One of Abby’s test tubes was sitting next to one of the machines over there last night and it’s not there anymore,”  McGee pointed to the wall under the window.

“That was there before that mist appeared,” Sally told Tony as he went over to check.

“That the only thing taken within the last twenty-four hours?” he wanted to know.

“One of the file clerks misplaced her bracelet,” McGee shrugged. “She had sworn it was sitting on top of a bunch of files, but it had vanished when she went back to look for it.”

“That’s probably where I saw the mist the first time,” Sally snapped her fingers. “It’s been stealing stuff!”

“Why?” Tony absently blurted.

“Well, I don’t know,” Abby thought he was talking to her. “Nothing even remotely makes sense according to the list of things that were taken. No connection or anything.”

“I don’t know what kind of mist would steal anything, anyway,” Sally tossed her hands up. “Isn’t it… I don’t know, not solid? What could something like that want with random junk?”

And that was the five hundred dollar question.

The team went back upstairs with no leads on Abby’s magpie case and Tony sat at his desk for a few minutes before heading to the file room.

“Are you investigating down here, too?” Palmer met him at the door. “Sally said that both times she saw the mist, something went missing soon afterward.”

“I’ve never heard of anything like that before.”

“Me, either.”

They didn’t find anything there, nor did they find anything in Abby’s lab, though she had taped off the area with yellow tape.

They returned to the morgue with plans to meet up for lunch, before Tony went back to his desk.

“Nothing, huh?” McGee asked.

“No,” he sighed. “Kind of reminds me of this paperwork, which I _am_ going to figure out even if it kills me.”

** *


	6. Close Call

Sally watched Tony beat his head against the desktop.

“I’m pretty sure you are well on your way to a concussion,” she told him.

“No luck,” McGee sighed. “Nothing from the other Agents?”

“I’m going to lunch,” he suddenly stood. “Hopefully, I’ll have some calls before then explaining what – exactly – someone wants from me and why they thought paperwork was the way to do it.”

Sally followed him to the elevator. “So, what’s for lunch?” she asked as the elevator doors closed.

“I have some leftovers at my place,” Tony shrugged. “He said he wanted some and I thought it would be a good time to eat it now.”

“While your calls come in?”

“Well, it gives me something to do, so why not?”

Before they reached the morgue, however, the elevator briefly stopped.

“Okay, I was in here most of yesterday afternoon and it didn’t react,” Sally eyed the walls surrounding them.

“No, I don’t think that’s it,” Tony said as it resumed. The car came to a stop right before Tony heard a _very_ familiar ‘pop’ coming from behind him. “Sally,” he closed his eyes. “Look behind me and tell me that whatever just came in doesn’t have big eyes and really flappy ears.”

“Okay… It’s wearing a pillowcase, if that’s what I’m allowed to say.”

He cracked an eye open as he slowly turned to see a female house-elf looking up at him.

“Master Tony, sir?” she squeaked. “I is Winky and Mr. Harry Potter –”

“Sally, disrupt the cameras,” Tony ordered. She obeyed his tone and disappeared for a few moments. When she came back and gave the all clear for three minutes, Tony grabbed the elf and charged down the hall. “Palmer!” he called, diving in to the sterile room.

“Am I late for lunch already?” he poked his head out of the office. “Sorry, Tony, but I got carried –”

“Someone’s coming!” Sally alerted them from the door as Palmer took in the puzzled elf Tony carried. “Quick, hide it!”

“Where?” Tony looked around before lighting upon an idea.

Gibbs walked in not seconds later to see Tony leaning up against one of the closed drawer doors as Palmer leaned back against the table in front of him.

“Thought you were on lunch break, DiNozzo.”

“Yeah, Boss. Just thought I’d drag Palmer, here, off to this great place I found the other day.”

“Ducky in?”

“Uh, no,” Palmer shook his head. “He just stepped out.”

Gibbs eyed them, before nodding and deciding to check in with Abby.

“That was close,” Tony slumped in relief as Sally reported the former Marine gone.

“What were you doing with a house-elf, anyway?” Palmer wanted to know.

“The Trio sent her,” Tony shrugged, opening the door and pulling the tray out with the bemused elf on top. “Sorry, Winky,” he told her. “You just surprised me is all.”

“Master Tony,” she summoned a draw-string bag and held it out to him. “Mr. Harry Potter is telling Winky that Master Tony is to send a message back to Mr. Harry Potter.”

“Why is she calling you ‘Master’?” Sally frowned.

“She’s a House-Elf,” Palmer shrugged. “They do that.”

Winky also told them that Tony was to be her Master until she went back.

Which was great, but he didn’t need an elf. When he said so, she looked like she was going to cry.

“But, I’ll be sure to think about it!” Tony hastened to reassure her. “Tell you what. Why don’t you head over to the MNP until… I get back to this office? I’ll be sure to think hard before then, alright? It should be… I don’t know, let’s make it two hours.  If I’m not back in two hours, stay at the MNP until I do. Okay?”

Palmer shook his head as she disappeared from the room. “Kind of touchy, aren’t they?”

“Sensitive, too,” Sally added.

Tony stuffed the bag into his pocket and refused to answer their questions about what it was. “Palmer would know about House-Elves,” he changed the subject. “He’s used to them.”

“I didn’t have any,” he corrected. “But some of my classmates had them.”

“Private school kids,” Tony tsked. “What do they teach you nowadays?”

** *

They piled into Tony’s car and soon left the Navy Yard.

“So, we’re going to eat at your place?” Palmer confirmed.

“Yup,” he nodded, Sally in the backseat.

She watched with wide eyes as they headed out to Tony’s place. She never really thought of anything else outside of Boston, where she knew the area intimately. DC was different.

A different setting, city, but the people were about the same.

She snickered at one bumper sticker that applied to quite a few people in Boston, when she turned around and saw an odd sight.

“Hey, Tony,” she frowned a few minutes later. “I think there’s a hearse following us.”

“Probably,” Palmer shrugged.

“What _is_ she looking for, again?” Tony glanced at him.

“I really don’t know.”

“You don’t know? Aren’t you like her partner in crime, or something?”

“She never told me what we were looking for. You know how she is.”

Sally frowned between the two of them as the hearse inched closer. When they got to a light some streets from Tony’s place, the hearse overtook them and moved in front.

Sally caught sight of the driver and her mouth fell open. “Was that _Abby_?”

“That’s a shortcut to your place, right?” Palmer watched the hearse take a left.

“Yup.”

“Going the long way?”

“Yup.”

Sally was puzzling it out when they got to the parking garage across the street from Tony’s building about ten minutes later. “Why is she going to your place?”

“You’ll see,” Palmer smothered a smile.

They made their way upstairs to Tony’s unit and it took a second for Sally to realize what Abby had planned on doing.

“Are you serious?” she huffed as she spied the Goth back in camo gear on the fire escape landing outside the window at the end of the hall they came in from.

“Yeah,” Palmer stretched with his back to the window. “As we told you yesterday, she’s been doing this for at least a month now. Or something. That’s when we started noticing anyway.”

Tony rolled his eyes as he leaned against the wall next to the stairs, back also to the window. “We know that she thinks she’s looking for something, but we don’t know what it is, exactly.”

_“Palmer? I’m in position.”_

Tony and Sally stared at him as he sheepishly extracted his radio.

“Hey, Abby. I’m here.”

_“You know what to look for, right?”_

“I think it’s been established otherwise,” Sally quipped as Tony covered his eyes.

“Really,” Tony frowned at him. “What am I being set up for?”

“I don’t know.”

“Well, you have to know _something_ ,” he walked over and snatched the radio out of his hands. “Why else would you be her partner in crime?”

“She probably thinks I am.”

“How did you get mixed up in this, anyway?”

“Does it really matter?” Sally had to ask.

“Of course it matters!” she was amused to note the binoculars following Tony’s every move. “It’s not that I’m not at least entertained by this – because I am -, but I would at least like to know something about why she’s being so insistent that I’m apparently doing something that’s getting her attention! What in the world is so interesting about me that she has to stoop to actual surveillance to do it? Really. I would think she was at least comfortable with me to actually come up to me and ask me what it is she wants to know. Why all this cloak and dagger stuff? And I would think that you were told about it, but I do understand that she’s Abby and obviously thinks everyone can read her mind like Gibbs can, but that still doesn’t explain why she’s out on the fire escape landing right now, acting like I’m someone to be watched!”

In the course of his rant, he had moved to the window and Sally stifled a laugh as the binoculars moved with him until they were looking directly up at him as he stood slightly to the side.

Tony glanced over once, then twice, before bringing the radio to his mouth. “Can I help you?”

The radio ‘eep’-ed. _“Palmer, I think I’ve been made. Meet you back at HQ.”_ The binoculars slowly sunk out of sight, rising back up a few times as it went, until – about five minutes later – it disappeared entirely.

Tony rubbed his forehead. “Come on, I’m hungry,” he dropped the radio back into Palmer’s hand as he unlocked the door. 

Sally took another glance at the window and snorted as she saw the binoculars back in their previous spot, but now sporting a mini bowler hat. If she looked closely, she could also make out a small mustache hanging under the lenses.

‘And he works with this character every day?’ she shook her head, before wandering after the Wizards.

** *


	7. Last Sighting

After lunch and the elf situation was sorted (“Isn’t your friend going to kill you for dumping it on her?” “Nah, she’s wanted to try one out for a while.”), everything was back to relative normal.

Sally wandered around, trying to find out if she could track that odd blue mist, as Tony went back to his phone calls.

The cause of all the files being dumped on the East Coast agents ended up being a clerical error in New Jersey. Someone quit a few days ago and was upset enough at the agency that they decided to mess everything up.

Gibbs was fit to be tied after that reveal.

Sally had passed his desk when he was on the phone and it seemed kind of shady when she heard a non-English language coming from him. She wondered who the hit was getting taken out on.

She hung out with Jay and Clover for a few hours, meeting other Liaisons before they took off to their assignments, and checked in with Josh, until it was time for all good NCIS Agents to go home.

Naturally, that’s not what ended up happening.

It was about time for Tony to clock out and Sally knew it.

She probably should think about going home, herself. It had been a fun few days, but she was ready to just be at her house, her home,  and hang out with her roomies.

Not that Tony and Palmer and the other ghosts weren’t awesome, because they were, but… Was it possible to get homesick if you were technically dead?

She decided it must be, not having any other label for it.

Sally was overlooking the office at the rail looking down on Tony, his team already having left for the night.

Palmer was just making sure everything was ready for tomorrow before saying goodnight to them.

She was leaning her head down on her arms crossed at the rail, when her gaze slid to the right. Her brown eyes widened before she stood straight at the sight.

“Tony! There it is!”

He looked up to see her pointing at the back corner.

“The blue mist,” she added. “It’s there!”

Deciding to find this mist once and for all, he got up and followed her directions to where the mist was.

“I don’t see it,” he shook his head as she appeared next to him.

“You don’t see it? How?” she waved her hands around as the mist covered two desks. “I can see it, plain as day!”

Tony looked at the completely empty desks and shook his head again. “Nothing.”

“What’s nothing?” Palmer joined them.

“Sally’s mist. She says it’s here, but it’s not.”

“It has to be here. Look, it’s even moving!”

Sally pointed it out again, but the boys still couldn’t see it.

“I don’t know, Sally,” Tony shook his head. “I don’t know anything like what you’re telling me. I’ve never heard of it.”

“There has to be someone who knows, right?”

“I think Director Vance is still in his office,” Palmer told them.

“Maybe he knows,” Tony sighed.

The three of them headed upstairs and found Vance just packing up.

He looked up when the door opened and two out of three piled in, the third appearing in the corner.

“Palmer, DiNozzo,” he raised a brow. “Ms. Malik. Something I can do for you?”

“It’s Sally’s mist,” Palmer told him.

Sally took over the explanation, telling Vance about her encounters with that blue mist and her suspicion that it could be linked to Abby’s magpie case since a lot of things disappeared after Sally saw it in the area.

“And you say it’s blue ,” Vance leaned back against his desk, arms crossed. “ ‘Mist’ is what it looks like, but it’s moving?”

“Yeah, yeah, it… It’s like… You know how water moves, right? It kind of looks like that when it moves and – ”

“Say no more,” Vance interrupted. “Ms. Malik, I know exactly what it is.”

 ** _“You do?”_** they chorused.

“It doesn’t surprise me that a spirit can see it. It’s a creature that originated in Africa and it must have been drawn to my magic. Some of my ancestors were from Africa. I would be fairly certain that some of yours were, too, in light of this. Most black spirits are capable of seeing this otherwise ‘invisible thief’. There are wards that should have been put in here when I took office.”

“First black Director in fifteen years,” Tony explained to Sally. “Someone must have forgotten about it.”

“Thanks to Ms. Malik,” he rubbed his eyes, “I know who to ream out for this.”

“Well, Tony and Palmer are great wizards who must know about wards, right?”

“Not specific to certain things to keep out, no,” Tony shook his head. “There are trained wizards for that.”

“Ms. Malik, I’m going to need your assistance during this operation,” Vance turned to her. “You can see it, so I would ask that you come back in a few hours after I’ve contacted the right people about this.”

“Hey,” Palmer smiled at her. “You’re a Liaison now!”

“Really?” she turned to him. “Like Jay?”

“If you like,” Vance smiled briefly. “I think we could use more spirits who can see these creatures just in case it may be needed in the future.”

She was starting to like the idea.

“Mm,” she smiled at the ceiling. “Liaison Sally Malik. Nice ring to it, right?”

“Not just Liaison Malik,” Palmer added. “NCIS Liaison.”

She tilted her head as Tony grinned.

“Well, _Very_ Special NCIS Liaison Sally Malik,” he tilted his head. “How ‘bout it?”

Very Special NCIS Liaison Sally Malik.

It had a very nice ring to it.

“I’m game,” she puffed up. “So, tomorrow, then?”

“I’ll go to the MNP on my way out,” Vance nodded. “I’ll also get started with your paperwork. We post Liaison information for all MNP heads so that they’ll know who to look for.”

“I think you’ll be hanging around here, though,” Tony mused. “This would technically be your home office. We suggested you first. You only get the assignments that you might want. Though, there will be times when those with certain attributes will be approached for special assignments.”

“I understand Africa may have a need for black spirits,” Vance added. “There are certain creatures that only those like yourself can see.”

She felt important and not at all insignificant. There were things she could do as a Ghost that would actually make a difference!

“When can I leave?” she smiled widely. “I’m packed and ready when you are!”

** *


	8. Abby's Answer

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey all! Thanks for reading and I'll see you next time!

Sally was back at NCIS with the dawn.

“Oh, this is really exciting,” she bounced up and down next to Tony as he looked over his files with a sigh.

“Yeah, for you,” he muttered.

They sent Winky back to Hogwarts before leaving for the night, with the note the Trio had asked for. Now, all Sally was waiting for was the warding team that she was going to be assisting. It was her job to keep an eye out for the mist to see if it worked.

“And what about Abby’s magpie case?” she wanted to know.

Tony opened a Word document and started typing.

_‘I did some reading into it and it turns out that when the mist fully disappears, all the items will return to their owners. It’s got something to do with African folklore about their creation stories. You would have to ask someone who knows more  about it than I do.’_

“Huh. Okay, then. She’s probably going to be disappointed when everything gets found.”

_‘The credit will probably go to her, anyway. But, you’re right. She’ll probably keep busy with trying to figure out how she missed all of it and leave me alone.’_

“What was she looking for with the stalking routine, anyway?”

_‘I still have no idea.’_

** *

Abby, Palmer, Ziva and McGee were watching Tony type from the safety of the lab.

“Oh yes,” Ziva drawled. “Very suspicious behavior.”

Abby scowled at her. “He probably has an accomplice. That’s what I’m thinking.”

“An accomplice for what?” Palmer frowned.

“Abby,” McGee sighed. “It’s been established that it has to be a gut feeling. Gibbs has them all the time.”

“How could you compare the two?” she wanted to know. “I mean, yeah, Tony’s gut is almost on Gibbs’ level, but Gibbs doesn’t know anything about what Tony does!”

“Abby,” Palmer raised a hand. “I don’t think you ever told me what it was that we were looking for.”

She looked sheepish as she realized that she had never actually told him. “Alright,” she beamed.  “I know it’s going to sound crazy, but for the last month or so, I’ve been looking for evidence into a theory that can’t just be explained away.”

“And what theory would that be?”

“It all started during that rainy week we had where nothing seemed to go right and – ”

“She thinks Tony can predict the weather,” McGee rolled his eyes.

“I was supposed to tell it!”

Palmer blinked before huffing a laugh. Sure, Tony had magic, but even with that being the case – “Abby, there is no _possible_ way that anyone – let alone Tony – can predict the weather. _Accurately_.”

“I don’t know,” she frowned at him. “Every time he takes his rain gear out, it ends up raining before he gets back! Explain that to me.”

“Maybe McGee was right,” Ziva shrugged. “Tony’s gut. He did have the plague, so it is only natural that he should be careful.”

“But the last time he did that, there wasn’t supposed to be rain or anything!”

“Gut.”

Abby tossed her hands up. “Impossible, all of you. Fine. But when I finally get evidence, _I_ will be the one laughing.”

The three left the lab and waited for the elevator, Abby determined to catch Tony using one of his ‘sources’ in meteorology.

“Can you believe that all this spying was because she thought he could predict the weather?” Palmer shook his head. “Ridiculous.”

“Tell me about it,” McGee rubbed his eyes. “There’s just no way anyone can without at least two doctorates in meteorology.”

And besides that, Palmer had never heard of a Magical person being able to do that, too.

Little did they know that, just upstairs, the impossible was reality in the form of their Italian friend.

As Sally bid him a farewell, Tony glanced out the window and shook his head. He was going to leave a little later tonight.

The clouds should rain themselves out by then.

** *END


End file.
